I am so grateful for long weekends! This was the first genuine break our family got since school started, and it felt wonderful! This week Lily enjoyed both story time and craft time at the library. She was thrilled to make butter, just as Johnny was thrilled with his preschool Thanksgiving-themed crafts!
Emma was a little sad that they didn’t make more Thanksgiving crafts in kindergarten, so she added some decorations to the walls surrounding our Thankful Thanksgiving Tree:
Even her dolls got improvised Thanksgiving hats:
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at my brother and sister-in-law’s house with my sister and a friend of my brother’s. The food was delicious, the company perfect, and the kids were well-entertained with large cardboard boxes, also known as the Best Toys on Earth.
We also had a Thanksgiving-themed play date at a friend’s house Wednesday afternoon, where we made fun fall-colored decorations that the kids enjoyed making, but were thoroughly crushed before I thought to take a picture of them (last night while writing this post). I think we’ll make some more Christmas-y ones to share here sometime in December. =)
Johnny and Emma built a robot version of our family together out of Lego DUPLO bricks, and Johnny especially enjoyed playing with them!
We (Mike especially) also spent a lot of time cleaning up the yard – it is finally free of leaves, and should stay that way since our neighbors finished ahead of us (sorry, neighbors!) and nearly all the leaves are off of the trees!
My sister K made the kids these hats using a circle loom – aren’t they cute? Even better, my kids NEVER pass by an opportunity to wear them! They still wear the hats she made them last year, too!
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Love your kids writing. Those baby doll headbands are about the cutest thing ever. I just had to include them in my writing feature this week! I’m going to make some holiday themed ones with my 5 year old this week! http://theeducatorsspinonit.blogspot.com/2011/12/afterschool-express-writing-continues.html
Aw, thanks! I hope your 5yo enjoys making them as much as Emma did!
I too truly love long weekends!
I needed one this weekend…I was just plain pooped! ;)
That’s exactly how I felt! It was SO nice to get a break!!!
That is awesome they have hats your sister made. I might be giving in and learning to crochet soon………
Everyone should have a Thanksgiving hat!
Thanksgiving is such a wonderful way to ring in the Christmas season… with gratitude and love in action!
A sister in our ward here gave me exactly the circle loom set you posted but I have not got around to tring it out. How does your sister do the hats?
This is how she made the ones she sent them this year:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Hat-on-a-Loom/
And this is how she made the ones from last year – just a different (simpler) finish:
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Hat-with-a-Knitting-Loom
And this is how she made the pom poms:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a03BTR3_3qg
I’m also so grateful for long weekends! Such sweet pictures. Those doll hats made me laugh out loud–so cute! Glad you enjoyed your weekend.
Hurrah for the best toys on earth! Looks like you had so much fun, and how great to have a little break in routine with a long weekend!!
Emma has such great, creative initiative!
LOL about the baby doll hats. That is cute. The hats your sister made are cool!
Love the robot family and Thanksgiving hats for the dolls! We really enjoyed a long weekend too even though we didn’t accomplish everything on my list.
You can’t go past a big box when it somes to keeping the younger ones entertained.
Long weekends are precious. All of ours fall in the first half of the year so we are really looking forward to some days off over Christmas and the New Year.
Our temps at the moment are soaring – it’s lovely to see photos of your babies rugged up. This morning when I dropped Savvy off at kindy she was as red as a beetroot after running around a little bit. I must have told her ten times to make sure she drinks lots of water!
Looks like you had a great week! Love Johnny’s Duplo creation. :)